When Dwight Howard entered the league, everyone had high expectations for him. He chose to enter the 2004 NBA draft, and was the first draft pick. He was drafted by the Orlando Magic, and everyone was expecting that he would do great things. He chose the number 12 and was expected to become the leader of the team right away. The Orlando Magic had only won 21 games before drafting Howard, and in the first season with the team he averaged an incredible double-double consisting of 12 points and 10 rebounds. He broke many records during that season.
On his second season he gained 20 pounds of muscle and decided to polish his defense and also his post-up game. And he was straight up balling that season, he had games with more than 20 points and 20 rebounds. You can clearly see that he was getting better and better each year. He would lead this team to the playoffs first, and in the 2008-09 season he helped his team have an amazing regular season. They had a record of 59 wins and 23 losses. They won against the 76ers, and in the next round, when Magic failed to win game 5 against the Boston Celtics, he publicly criticized his coach Stan Van Gundy and his tactics, saying that he needed to have the ball more in his hands. This was the first sign that he tends to talk things that should be discussed privately. However, this problem was surpassed since the Magic managed to qualify for the NBA Finals, where they would play against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Despite a phenomenal showing by Howard, they ended up losing the finals 4 – 1. But this was a great year for Howard personally, he managed to win the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award.
During the 2011-12 season, Howard started to make demands and complained that the Magic front office weren’t doing enough in building a team that can compete with the best teams in the NBA. He made a request to be traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, Dallas Mavericks or New Jersey Nets, but he ended withdrawing that request, so he played another season for the Orlando Magic.
Come the 2012 season he was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers and a team consisting of Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, Pau Gasol and Dwight Howard was formed, that was expected to do great things. However, that team turned out to be a train wreck since there was no chemistry whatsoever between the players. Dwight Howard started acting more and more dramatic. He had criticized Kobe Bryant for shooting too much and when he was sidelined many times during the season, Bryant said that he should play through the pain, which didn’t sit well with Howard who said that he was “not a doctor, I’m not a doctor. That’s his opinion”. The season ended disastrously for him and the LA Lakers, since they only managed to only reach the 8th place and were swept on the first round by the San Antonio Spurs.
He became a free agent the next season and he had the chance to sign again with the Los Angeles Lakers, but he decided to join Houston Rockets, to form a duo with James Harden. While a new challenge with a new team might have been a part of the reason why he decided to join the Rockets, the other part of it is the bad blood that he and Kobe Bryant had. Howard has been known to be a positive goofy guy that loves to joke around, while Bryant was dead serious when it came to basketball.
Kobe Bryant said this about Howard, “I tried teaching Dwight, I tried showing him. But the reality is that when you have a perception of what it is to win a championship – and most perceptions of what it’s like to win are a very outgoing, very gregarious locker room where you pick each other up and you’re friends all the time. That’s the perception. And I think that’s what his perception was of what the idea is. But when he saw the reality of it, it made him uncomfortable. And it’s very tough to be able to fight through that, to deal with that challenge. And I don’t think he was willing to deal with that uncomfortable and combative nature.”
After joining the Rockets, he was expected to make a big impact on the team, but he left after two seasons, by declining the player option that he had, worth $23 million. His next destination, were the Atlanta Hawks, where he only managed to lead the team to a first round exit. His career started going south quickly, from being on the position to ask for a trade, he became a player that would be traded by the team.
His next adventure, was in Charlotte, where he would play for the Charlotte Hornets. This is what his former teammate in Atlanta, Dennis Schroder had to say about him, “he plays always great against his former team. Credit to him too, but that’s like four games each year, you know? Houston, L.A., us…”
His Charlotte experiment failed spectacularly, with him not being able to help the team get into the playoffs. According to Brendan Haywood, who used to be a teammate with Charlotte’s Kemba Walker and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, “the locker room did not like Dwight Howard.”
So, he was then traded to the Brooklyn Nets, who waived him immediately after they acquired him. He signed with the Washington Wizards, and due to injuries, he hasn’t been able to contribute much. From what we have seen so far in his career, wherever he went, his behavior has made him a lot of enemies, and many teams have just given up on him.
